Technology takes over

I came across two seemingly unrelated articles this weekend that made me think a bit (as I have before) about the growing role of technology in our lives. The first article, "iPhone app helps save high school b-ball star's life", has made the rounds on a number of internet news sites, and it's your typical feel-good, "look how great technology is" story.

On a whim last week, head high school basketball coach Eric Cooper Sr. downloaded a $1.99 iPhone app called Phone Aid to brush up on his CPR skills. His timing couldn't have been better. 

During team practice the very next day at La Verne Lutheran High School in California, 17-year-old star center Xavier Jones stumbled while trying to receive a pass and collapsed on the court, his heart having stopped, reports the Los Angeles Times. 

With CPR tips from his new mobile app fresh in his mind, Coach Cooper, with the help of Assistant Coach John Osorno, was able to revive Jones and keep his heart beating until paramedics arrived. When Jones came to in the hospital the next day, he said he had no memory of the collapse.

On its own, this is obviously a positive story, one that speaks to the good things that technology can do for us. But lest we kid ourselves, the life saved was not saved by an iPhone app, but rather by a properly trained CPR expert who used the app as a refresher.

At the risk of being the turd in the punch bowl (not a new role for me by any means), I wonder if there's a darker side to this story. That is, what would have happened had Cooper not downloaded the app? Have we become so dependent on our technology that we become useless without it? Perhaps it's a rhetorical question, because our technology isn't going away any time soon. But it is in this vein that I found the second story, "Does GPS spell the end to maps?" to be relevant.

Two college students playing in an out-of-town hockey tournament went out to eat with their parents after a late game, but the restaurant they picked had just closed its kitchen.

"There's another place just a few blocks away," the hostess said helpfully. "Take a left out of the parking lot, go two blocks, turn right and go one block."

The parents and the players retreated to their separate cars. When the players sat in the parking lot for a couple of minutes without moving, one of the parents walked over to see if there was a problem with the car.

"Not at all," they said. "We're just programming the directions into the GPS.' "

Is that where we've ended up, with a younger generation that can't go three blocks without being told by a electronic voice where to turn?

Okay, sure, I'm probably being the grumpy old man by reading this article and silently nodding my head. But I do think it's a pertinent question. The more we rely on our technology to do things for us (or even teach us to do things, or even brush up on skills we've learned elsewhere), the less self-sufficient we become.

I love and embrace all of the great things that technology has enabled us to do over the past 20 or so years, but I think it's necessary at every step to ensure that we are using it as a complement to our normal capabilities, and not a replacement. I think that's the real lesson to be learned from our first story--use the app to complement our existing skills, not to learn on the fly. Had the coach not already known CPR, there's almost no way the iPhone app could have helped him under duress. But used properly, technology can indeed help us to achieve great things.

[CNET]
[Minneapolis Star-Tribune]